Making Life a Commodity

Did the price on males 25-40 rise today?

Drug maker Mylan and its CEO Heather Bresch are the newest monsters that has channeled the public's rage. The makers, and distributors, of the life saving EpiPen have dramatically increased the price of the medicine from around $100 in 2008 to over $600 today. Since the price increase Mylan has seen its stock price triple and Bresch's compensation has gone from $2.5 million a year to nearly $19 million. The furor over the EpiPen price gouge has even united many in the Republican and Democratic parties in condemning Mylan. Much like the controversy related to the steep price increase in the drug Daraprim, the public rage being directed towards Mylan and Bresch is meant to shame and cause meaningful change. What Mylan and Bresch have done, like Turing Pharmaceuticals and former CEO Martin Shkreli, is increase profits for billionaires at the expense of the lives of poor people with life threatening conditions. In their world the ability to make money is more important than saving a dying child.

In an interview to do some damage control, CEO Bresch told CNBC that "No one's more frustrated than me." about the dramatic increase in the price of the life saving EpiPen. "I'm running a business" is the excuse that Bresch gives to answer why the price of the drug keeps going up. The tone deafness of Mylan and Bresch does nothing to quell the public's rage over the EpiPen price gouge. It should not. The lack of humanity from people like Shkreli and Bresch continues to highlight the gap between the very rich, and everyone else. People are rightfully getting angry.

The problem is that Heather Bresch is right, she is running a business. What Mylan has done by increasing the price of the EpiPen is not illegal, in fact it is encouraged in capitalism. Turing Pharmaceuticals did lower the price of Daraprim, but it still costs 2500% higher than it did before the hike. Mylan bought the rights to the EpiPen (the drug is generic, the delivery system is what has value) in 2007, and has been raising the price 10% or more every year. This is how the for profit drug companies make money. Mylan did no research and development in creating the EpiPen. They do not sell the device at a loss. The EpiPen is a strong, and endless, revenue stream for the billion dollar company. By raising the price of the drug, Bresch has done exactly what she was hired to do, make money for Mylan.

In the United States drug companies can charge whatever they want. One of the core tennets of capitalism is to charge what the market will accept. When you are the sole provider of a life saving medication, the cost of a person's life can be quite large. Other industrialized nations have governmental agencies that negotiate with drug manufacturers to make sure that the cost of life saving medicines are not out of reach to the average consumer. It is illegal in the United States for the government to negotiate with drug manufacturers. The drug companies charge whatever they want, for profit insurance companies pass those charges onto their customers, and the US government subsidizes both the drug makers and insurance providers. The only person losing money is the consumer because they need the drugs to stay alive. US capitalism has put a price on life. That price is whatever the drug companies want it to be.

This is evil. When Mylan bough the rights to the EpiPen, CEO Bresch did not want to save lives. The company bought the product because they could make an obscene amount of money. The company claims to be concerned with the well being of general public by offering coupons and other means to make the EpiPen more affordable, but Mylan still makes over $600 off of the drug. The consumer may not pay the full price, but insurance rate hikes and government subsidies will cover the full cost of the EpiPen. One does not need an MBA, there are a lot of questions about Heather Bresch's education, to understand how to use an immoral system to make money. Mylan saw profit, no matter the consequences. The consequences of price gouging the EpiPen can mean death for those not blessed enough like Heather Bresch and the board of directors at Mylan. 

Mylan is not the first company to buy a cheap life saving drug and use their monoply to make obscene amounts of money and endanger innocent people at the same time. Heather Bresch is not the first soulless CEO to claim to be the victim in a world of bad press. They are not the first, and they will not be the last. The millionaires who are the elected representatives of the United States citizens would rather protect corporate interests than be concerned about the health of their constituents. Being one of the only civilized nations without government oversight on drug prices, the ruling class in Washington DC thinks that american lives are a commodity. Drug companies like Mylan, Turing Pharmaceuticals, and many others keep cozy with Washington so the lives of Americans can be quantified. It is sick and it needs to stop.

The righteous anger over the radical increase in the price of the EpiPen should not go away. An economically challenged child born with a peanut allergy, through no fault of their own, should not have to die because Mylan and Heather Bresch wanted to add shareholder value. We need to be angry, we need to demand change. Bresch's frustration should not be because she is being bothered by bad press, her frustration should stem from the fact that her company is not finding life saving cures and giving them away for free. One's health, one's life, should never be part of the bottom line in any company's earnings report. Mylan and Heather Bresch deserve to be frustrated. 

Healthcare is in trouble, and allowing immoral people to continue to make millions on the broken system needs to stop. The EpiPen battle is just the first skirmish in a war to make American lives valuable again. Call your elected representative, write an impassioned plea on social media, yell through a megaphone, but do not let the furor over the EpiPen die. The drug companies, and their cronies in Washington DC, need to feel the wrath of America. You should be the only one who can put value on your life, not a grotesque company with an uncaring CEO. Life is not a commodity, because life is something more than a monetary value.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Are drug companies the heroes that the business press makes them out to be? No they are not. Let RD know where he is misguided by writing for SeedSing.